THE ARMENIAN QUESTION.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 3263, 21 October 1897, Page 2

THE ARMENIAN QUESTION.

The present situation in Armenia was discussed last night In a lecture given at the Church of Christ by Mr Albert Ludbrook, who has recently returned from a visit to Turkey. The lecturer gave particulars of many of the atrocities perpetrated by the Turks'upon the helpless Armenians, and condemned the apathy, of the European Powers in regard to this question.' Although the Armenians believed that the penalty for suicide was eternal perdition, yet-hundreds ■ of women bad leaped to death in the Tigris and Euphrates to escape torture and outrage. An Armenian, found in possession of a copy of. a speech in which Lord Salisbury had hit the Sultan rather hard had received the cruel sentence of 20 years* 7 imprisonment. From six wealthy Armenians at Smyrna the Turkish authorities *had demanded while he was in Turkey a loan of XGO.OOO. Each one of theta knew that ho would never see a penny of [his money again, but if any one of them had refused, : his house would have been surrounded on the first dark night by a band, of Turkish soldiers*.,.and' next „ morning he would have been in a dungeon. The Turkish tax-gatherers never. gave . receipts if it oould lie- avoided, .and so the u same taxes were extorted from the Armenians twice or three times in one season. When a baby was born a tax was'paid '; when a lad was sent to work he had to pay a tax for tho privilege. No Armenian dared to say, ‘‘This is my wife/*, if - a Turk had said ho wanted her, otherwise ho was struck down by a > dagger; and no Turk was ever punished for what ho did to ah Armenian. Tho terrible massacres of which they read now and then were only in on intensified form what is going on in the daily life of this unhappy people. Thousands of Armenian Protestants, men 'and also women jqst as • refined and sensitive as any woman listening to him, had been put to death rather than lift the finger in- token tof thoir of Islam— at Kharput, at Marash,and at other places those martyrs * had given up their Uvea. And yet how apathetic, how comparatively ' indifferent had been the so-oaUed Christian Powers. There wasneed of another John Milton who would arouse the conscience of Europe with another of hie immortal sonnets/ 1 There was no 'John Milton, but there was Mr Gladstone/whose - voice bad been uplifted on behalf of the oppressed. It hod seemed that the Ottoman Empire would end in 1851 in the Crimean war, and in 1878 in the Russo*.* Turkish war, but in each instance, to thoir shame be it said, the British had interfered to preserve ,it. How long would the most inhuman monster of' all time, Abd-ul-Hamod, ; continue to hold in his grip; the most ancient race on tho face of .the earth ? . He believed that the end was not far off. God grant that it may. be so, added Mr Ludbrook,who was frequently applauded in the coarse of his address. The _ lecture was illustrated by Umelight views of Constantinople and other cities in . Turkey, Mr T. Turner working the lantern. There was a large attendance.